The Quinine Monopoly

As I was finishing up a transcription for the second page of the People's Voice from April 17, 1880, there was an intriguing tidbit at the bottom of the paper. The article stated, "There are four firms that monopolize the manufacture of quinine in the whole United States." Can we figure out these four companies from this one tantalizing clue?

Unfortunately the previous article source is vague. So far the original article has eluded our search attempts (there are many newspapers named "Free Press" or variations to that effect). Another researcher helpfully clipped an article in the Ann Arbor Courier from 1888 that names the four manufacturers that were (presumably) in the original article. The Ann Arbor list includes "Powers & Weightman, Rosengarten & Son, Keason & Mattison, and C.T. White & Co." Now that we have the business names, what can we find learn about these companies?

Powers and Weightman: This is probably the most-remembered company of the original four. The roots for this Pennsylvania pharmaceutical company, likely founded in 1818, began when William Weightman assumed the operations of his uncle's business, John Farr and Company, upon his passing in 1847. He renamed the company in 1848. It seems the "Powers" in the new company name is in reference to Thomas Powers, who was John Farr's second partner (the first apparently being named Kunzi or Kunzie). Farr was the first to develop sulfate of quinine; the business held a quasi-monopoly on the drug and profited greatly during the Civil War.

Rosengarten and Sons: This is another early pharmaceutical company of Pennsylvania, believed to be founded in 1822. The original name appears to have been Zeitler and Seitler. Rosengarten was originally the business's accountant, but the story goes that he was called in to mediate a dispute between the two partners. Rosengarten bought out Seitler's ownership in 1823 and Zeitler's portion in 1824. It was during the one year of operations as Zeitler & Rosengarten that this company first sold quinine. The business went through a few other iterations until 1854, when Rosengarten brought his sons into the business. This was the other half od the quasi-quinine monopoly during the Civil War. At the end of 1904, the two companies merged into Powers-Weightman-Rosengarten Company.[1][2] The combined company merged in 1927 with Merck.[3]

Keason & Mattison: No companies were found with this name. It may be a misprint for Keasbey & Mattison Company. An article in the Indianapolis Journal of 1888 reports Keasbey & Mattison had gone out of business sometime between 1879 and the writing of this article in October of 1888. This may not be entirely accurate - the Wikipedia article indicates the company was founded in 1873 and was a combined chemistry and pharmaceutical company. The quinine angle cannot be confirmed, but it does seem likely they stopped manufacturing pharmaceuticals when the company discovered an innovation for asbestos insulation. We'll probably revisit this company at some future point. 

Another potential lead is McKesson & Robbins, which advertised heavily in The Druggist's Ready Reference of 1880. Its seems their specialty was creating "gelatine-coated pills" to make taking medicine easier (quinine in particular is said to be bitter-tasting). This company is still in existence today, having survived a major financial scandal in 1938 involving fake identities and bootlegging.

C. T. White & Co.: The earliest reference found for a company with these initials appears to be a type foundry ad from 1859. A search on the Library of Congress and the Internet Archive was inconclusive (nothing with those exact initials and quinine was found). "Easy" searches through the druggist's reference book mentioned above also turned up nothing under this name. Although there is a "White's Extracts" in the reference manual, they do not list quinine in their products.

Of note when perusing the reference book mentioned above, many of the quinine-based medicines have notes that the price fluctuates with the market. This aligns with the overall timbre of the article that started this search, which states:

[The four companies] seem to be not contented with the enormous wealth they have acquired, but complain against the removal of the duty on quinine. Their idea of what is well for the country appears to be that on the things which are used in manufacturing quinine there should be no tax or duty, but that on quinine itself there should be a duty. Perhaps of all medicinal agents quinine is the most important; to thousands and thousands it is at times an essential agent of health and life. The laws of the country should be such as to make a necessity like this as easily obtainable as possible by all— the poor as well as the rich. No monopoly should be allowed to stand in the way of its being made more accessible to millions of the poor in our land who need it.

U.S. Public Health Service poster detail, 1920, from the Library of Congress

If you're not familiar with quinine, briefly, this is a drug derived from the bark of cinchona trees. It originated in South America and was used as a muscle relaxant and to treat diarrhea. Jesuit missionaries sent some quinine to Europe for testing its use in treating malaria. By the 1850s, quinine was commonly being used as a prophylactic against the disease - hence the position in the article that quinine is "an essential agent of health and life." 

Malaria was not well-understood, but it was feared. John MacCulloch, writing in 1827, asserted:

How widely Malaria is a cause of death, will be apparent almost on a moment's consideration, when we recollect, that in all the warmer, and thence more populous, countries, nearly the entire mortality is the produce of fevers, and these fevers the produce of Malaria. I have said elsewhere, that it has been estimated to produce one half of the entire mortality of the human race ; nor do I think that this computation, made by physicians of care and consideration, has been exaggerated.  

As late as 1884, how and why some people contracted malaria and others did not was not known; what they did know was the quinine was the only sure remedy. The link between the "Marsh Miasma" and mosquitoes was not solidified until the early 1900s. If you were in a location prone to malarial outbreaks, quinine was as essential as food and shelter to preserve your life. No wonder the newspaper took the position that people should have access to this medicine, not have it subject to the whims of fluctuating prices due to the control of four companies.

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